Andy Anderson's Bi-Wing

Story by Michael Shreeve
Photos by the Anderson Family and Michael Shreeve

In 1930, the then-16 year old Louis "Andy" Anderson, a resident of Dow
City, Iowa decided to build himself an aeroplane. Typical of many
homebuilts of the period, this one is unusual in that it has not only
survived, but remains in the care of the Anderson family almost 80
years later. Deciding on the configuration, he wanted to build a
biplane, as "everybody knows that an airplane should have two wings."

Andy had access to a Henderson motorcycle engine of 29 horsepower,
converted for use in an aircraft. The engine was a popular one
amongst homebuilders of the period, a number of companies marketing
versions converted for aircraft use (by removing the transmission,
adding a propeller mount and a larger sump, and modifying the
carburetor and exhaust). Built by the Excelsior Motor Mfg & Supply
Company of Chicago (owned by Ignaz Schwinn, of Schwinn Bicycle fame),
they were commonly used on the Heath Parasol design (Heath produced
their own version, the Heath-Henderson), and also powered the first
Maule design, the M-1 of 1931. A four-cylinder in-line configuration,
the Henderson put out between 20 and 30 hp, depending on
configuration. The Henderson engines were used for aviation purposes
from the early-1920s, although Excelsior ceased manufacturing in 1931
due to the depression.

Requiring a propeller for his aircraft, he found one available
mail-order in Texas, costing $5 (plus 25 cents shipping!). He spent
the summer picking corn, earning himself 10 cents a bushel, to raise
the money to buy it. The tailskid was made from a Model T Ford
spring, with the foot off a woodburning stove welded onto the end of
it. When the little aeroplane was completed (with the help of friends
and neighbours), Andy was able to make several hops in it across a
stream from his family's property onto a neighbouring one, and back
again, when the wind was in the right direction.

One day, while tethered to the family's corn crib for engine runs, the
aeroplane ran away from him, and hit the step of their horse-drawn
buggy, breaking the prop. He then dismantled the little Bi-wing, and
stored it at a friend's house. Years later, with the friend's parents
having passed on and his friend wishing to clear the house, the
dismantled aircraft was moved to a barn on the Andersons' property in
1950.

In the meantime, Andy had acquired his first real aircraft, an
American Eagle. In 1954, he moved with his family to Missouri.
Continuing to collect and restore old aeroplanes, running a
cropspraying business and operating the local airport, aviation has
remained in the blood of the Anderson family, who today have an
airstrip and numerous workshops on their property near Kansas City.
As well as aircraft, the family collected and restored old
vehicles. The tail of the Bi-wing was hung on the wall, the rest of it
was put into storage and forgotten about. As the Andersons were
restoring old vehicles, they wood often pull out the old engine and
put it on the scrap pile, and replace it with a refurbished unit.
Over many years, the scrap pile in the corner of the workshop grew and
grew, taking up space and leaking oil, until one day a few years ago
Andy's grandson, Mark, decided to clear it up. At the bottom of the
pile, encased in muck and liberally doused in oil from the other old
engines heaped above it, he found the Henderson engine.

Mark set the engine up outside, and was cleaning it up when his
grandfather visited one day and said "that's from my little biplane."
At around the same time, a neighbour came over to visit, and said that
he had at home an engine stand built especially for a Henderson engine
converted for aircraft use, that he had bought the previous week at a
farm sale for $1. Not really believing him, Mark asked him to bring
it over, which the neighbour did. The engine fitted onto the stand
perfectly! Another neighbour gave them a period propeller, which
again fitted perfectly. Mark set up the engine and propeller on the
stand, replaced the old corroded Bosch magneto with a Bendix one, set
the timing, put some fuel in, and it started up on the second pull!

Running it on the stand did not seem too safe, so he mentioned to his
grandfather that he'd like to build a fuselage to mount it on. Andy's
reply was that the remains of his original 1930s Bi-wing were still
stored on the property, so why didn't they rebuild that? They found
the fuselage in the rafters, along with wheels, tailskid, struts, and
the rotted remains of one wing. The wing remains yielded a good rib to
use as a pattern, so Mark put his two sons (then aged just over 10) to
work over the following winter building ribs. The fuselage and tail
was finished about 12 years ago, and the Bi-wing was re-assembled for
the first time in around 65 years, after having been worked on by 4
generations of the Anderson family. It is preserved in runnable
condition, as Mark Anderson demonstrated on my recent visit there.
The original, broken prop, which Andy picked corn to fund back in
1930, can still be seen on the wall of one of the workshops at his
home strip.

Sadly, Andy passed away in February 2008, a few days short of
his 94th birthday. However, in his lifetime he had been connected
with the building or restoration of around 100 aeroplanes, and his
legacy lives on, not only in the form of his first aeroplane, the 1930
Bi-wing, but also in the eclectic collection of antique aeroplanes and
vehicles based at his strip in Bates City. These include a rare
Curtiss OX-5 engined Brunner-Winkle Bird under restoration, and
various Aeroncas, Pietenpols, Cubs, and the sole surviving Wallace
Touroplane from 1929. Andy was an inductee of the
Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame.

My thanks go to the Anderson family for their hospitality whilst
visiting them and for the 1930 and recent photos of Andy and his
Bi-wing, to Eric Presten for arranging the visit, and to Harvey
Cleveland for flying me to take pictures of the strip from the air.